Board of Directors​

Julia Showalter, Chair

Julia is a lecturer in the Biology Department at Appalachian State University. She also manages the sustainable gardens on campus including the Appalachian Roots Garden, the Sustainable Development Civic Garden and the Garden at the Child Development Center. She has helped in the development of the Watauga Seed Library and helps to organize the Kid’s Corner at the Boone Farmer’s Market. Her interests are dendrology, agroforestry and permaculture.​

Grace Marasco-Plummer, Vice Chair ​

​Grace helps develop and manage externally-funded research and outreach projects of the Appalachian Energy Center and the Research Institute for Environment, Energy and Economics (RIEEE) at Appalachian State University. She is interested in various aspects of relocalizing the food economy and how home gardening contributes to sustainable food systems. She is also committed to connecting University expertise and resources with community needs while providing experiential learning opportunities to engaged students.

Freda Smith, Treasurer

As a resident of Boone for 40 years, Freda has owned her own business, Freda Smith, CPA, and volunteered with many non-profit organizations including OASIS, Watauga County Children’s Council, Blue Ridge Community Theatre, United Way and Boy Scouts. Freda loves to read and work in her flower beds, and is an avid quilter. As a small business owner since 1981, she understands the challenges facing small business and women in the workplace. She joined the Board of Directors to share her experiences and expertise to help BRWIA and local farmers to be successful.

Elaine Mansure, Secretary

Elaine Mansure joined the board of Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture in 2015, her sophomore year of high school. From a very young age, Elaine has had an appreciation for the environment and natural resources. As she grew, she became passionate about sustainability and the local food system, and through volunteering at numerous Farm Tours, she became interested in Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture. Involvement in Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture has appeased and expanded these passions. Elaine enjoys playing guitar, doing art, and dancing.

Carla Ramsdell

Carla is a faculty member in the Physics and Astronomy Department at Appalachian State. She is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific research and the general public in the areas of climate change, energy generation, and efficient cooking strategies. She is a licensed mechanical engineer and, prior to Appalachian State, spent 17 years working in the power industry. Carla comes from an Italian background and loves cooking and gardening. She has merged her love of science, food and environmental advocacy by creating a college course, research and public outreach platform on energy awareness related to our food system called “Know Watts Cooking: The Physics of Energy Efficient Food.” Carla is excited to join the board of BRWIA and contribute to the work of this organization promoting a vibrant local food system, a critical component to a sustainable food future.

Ms V

Ms. V served as an Educational Interpreter for the Deaf for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and Volunteered with Special Olympics of North Carolina for two decades. After moving to West Jefferson in 2012, she served on the Board with the Ashe County Farmers Market and started her own natural soap company with the catchphrase, “Your Skin Will Tell Your Life Story!” Ms. V says, “Many believe the phrase had to do with my soap and skin care. However, being a woman, an African American woman, this phrase has also been my motivational story throughout life. It’s been a phrase that keeps me grounded, humble, aware of my surroundings, my daily survival, courage to take on challenges; and a constant reminder that I too can help others to be great!” In her free time Ms. V likes, horticulture, collecting day lilies, traveling, cooking and a great debate!

Jacqueline Ignatova

Jacqui is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University. She teaches courses on food security and sovereignty, the politics of sustainable development, and global environmental politics. Since joining the BRWIA Board in 2015, Jacqui has co-organized the High Country Food Summit and supported the launch of the Watauga Seed Library. Jacqui is also a member of Appalachian State University's Appalachian Food Research for Equity, Sustainability, and Health (AppalFRESH) Collaborative. She is passionate about supporting local food and seed sovereignty through her work with BRWIA.

Edith Mubanda

Edith joined the board in May 2017. After a fulfilling career in public health nutrition at AppHealthCare, and adjunct teaching at Appalachian State University, she retired in 2015 to pursue projects that focus on sustainable development and help people out of poverty. Edith also is involved in community development work in Uganda, the country that raised her. Her work there aligns with BRWIA's vision of an equitable local food system and healthy ecosystem. Being with BRWIA staff and board members renews her faith in humanity, that there are people out there that want to make a difference in communities. Edith enjoys traveling, photography, the outdoors and facilitating better life experiences for families with small children.

Jessica Martell

Jessica is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Appalachian State University. Research fellowships in British and Irish archives have supported her work on the impact of industrial food chains upon modern literature and culture. She also researches Irish agricultural cooperatives and alternative food economies. She teaches courses on British, Irish, American, and World Literatures as well as food studies, film, and Literature and the Environment.

Christina Bailey

Christina moved to Boone in 2005, studied at App State, and graduated with a Bachelor's in Health Promotions and a minor in biology. She then went to massage school and has been practicing as a massage therapist since 2012. In 2015, Christina initiated a project called Village Vision that is a volunteer-organized by the community and nested under the wing of BRWIA. Village Vision organizes events and service projects throughout the year that bring our High Country Community together for wholesome fun while promoting local food and raising funds to be accessible to all. She is passionate about creating a healthy, happy, and thriving High Country Community and feels that having a food system that is kind to the Earth, farmers, bodies while being available to everyone is an imperative root to the healthy community she dreams of.

Laura Graham

Laura grew up in a home where all the food was homegrown, canned, preserved as much as possible. After moving to Boone in 1963, she has tried to maintain this way of life with her own children during much more modern times. These ideals lead Laura to found the Preserve Heritage Agriculture & Regional Markets NOW! non-profit and later help create The Kids' Corner at the Watauga Farmer's Market. Laura also coordinates the Tuesday Lunch Program to provide free lunch to college students every Tuesday and assists with the Children's Food Bags program to help feed children with low food security as part of her mission to enhance and sustain local food production and consumption. ​

Jessie Blackburn

Jessie Blackburn is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Composition and affiliate faculty in Appalachian Studies and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at Appalachian State University. She serves as the Assistant Chair of the Department of English and Director of Composition. Her research and community development work intersect with a focus on regional rhetorics, agritourism, Appalachian wine country, and sustainable drink/foodways. Jessieand her family live on their solar-powered homestead in Meat Camp, where they raise two North American Babydoll Southdown Sheep (Lucy and Mr. Tumnus), chickens, an heirloom orchard, and an integrated garden.

Deborah Patterson

Debra (Deb) Patterson and Kenneth (Ken) Jones are the Innkeepers at Meadowsweet Gardens Inn.While Ken is native to the area, Deb discovered this coolest corner of North Carolina in 2000. She fell in love with Joe Campbell house while looking for a small vacation retreat. Deb has spent her career in nursing and has a passion for taking care of people. She was in psychiatric clinical practice for many years before switching to public health consulting. Besides people, Deb loves to cook, garden, read and walk and bike. She has a love for herbs and herbal medicine and has studied this over the years as well as aromatherapy. Cooking up tinctures, medicinal ointments, essential oil therapies and making bath salts, scrubs, potpourris and other delights is her way of relaxing. The dream of owning a small Inn and taking care of people has been realized!

Ex Officio Board Members

Judith Phoenix

Judith served as Board Chair from 2014-2018. As a BRWIA board member, Judith combines her commitment to women's issues, food security and environmental sustainability. She believes that consumers have a responsibility to the growers. They are the ones who keep good food moving from the farm to the table, thus ensuring the survival of the community. She travels in between meetings.​

Phyllis Kloda

Phyllis Kloda currently serves as dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at Appalachian State University. She served as associate dean in the The School of The Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences from 2012 until 2016 at The College at Brockport and as chair of the Department of Art from 2006 until 2012. Prior to her arrival at Brockport she was a faculty member in the Department of Fine Arts at Ohio Wesleyan University and at the University of Wyoming where she was recognized with an Extraordinary Merit in Research Award for her scholarship along with an Ellbogen Teaching Award. Prior experience includes serving on the Board of Directors for the Visual Studies Workshop, the Flower City Arts Center as well as the National Council of Educators for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Board as Director-at-Large. Kloda exhibits on a national and international level, having work in shows in Germany, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand and her work is included in numerous publications and journals. She earned her B.S. in Studio Art at Nazareth College and after a decade of working in the newspaper industry as a Graphics Editor she returned to earn her M.F.A. in Ceramics from Ohio University.

Debbie Bauer

Debbie was a board member from 2014-2018. She has been gardening most of her adult life and her passion is school gardens that teach young people to garden and know where their food comes from. She is the former garden manager for the ASU Edible Schoolyard and a garden coordinator with the Lettuce Learn Project at Bethel Elementary School. ​